Rock Fever: Keith Urban’s First One-Man Band

Some people have imaginary friends growing up. But Keith Urban? He had a whole imaginary band.

He admitted as much on Thursday’s (March 6) American Idol.

“The memory that springs to mind the fastest about home is that I had an imaginary band — Rock Fever,” Urban said. “There was nobody in the band. It was just me. And I thought, ‘I’m going to paint the band name on the garage.’”

Great idea, right? Well, he must’ve run it by his father, who told the boy, “Whatever you do, don’t paint your band name on the side of the garage.”

“So when they went to work, that’s exactly what I did. My dad was livid when he got home,” Urban recalled. “Rock Fever: Appearing live at a yard near you.”

That little trip down Urban’s memory lane was the only happy moment on the episode. The rest was full of harsh words.

First, the 12 finalists spent a few minutes at the beginning of the show kind of complaining about how critical the judges were. Especially Harry Connick Jr.

After that, former judge Randy Jackson was there to do his own critique of the critiquing. Again, especially Connick.

“I don’t know if it’s as bad as it seems,” Jackson observed. “I think Harry was having a little indigestion. Him and Keith were going at it. Harry, what was happening, brother? What was happening?”

And then came Connick’s defense of his assessments.

“I was not hired as a mentor. If I were a mentor, I would give everything to that. I was hired as a judge,” he explained to Jackson, the contestants and the audience. “I have a very short amount of time to be very specific with information that I think will help you grow.”

Some 70 million votes came in after Wednesday’s show, and after they were counted, Emily Piriz was the contestant who was sent home on Thursday. The “save” has still not been used.